December 23 Today in OPC History

On December 23, 1928, Leslie and Dorothy Shinn Sloat were married. In 1933, they were blessed with the birth of their son, Francis. The Sloats would enjoy nearly fifty years of marriage until Dorothy’s death on August 18, 1978.

A graduate of Princeton University in 1929, Les Sloat followed J. Gresham Machen to Philadelphia and entered the inaugural class of Westminister Seminary that September. Upon his graduation from Westminster with both Th. B. and Th. M. degrees in 1933, Sloat was ordained in the PCUSA as the pastor of Presbyterian Churches of Ridgebury and Denton, New York. When the Presbyterian Church of America (now OPC) was formed on June 11, 1936, Sloat was enrolled as a constituting ministerial member.

He would pastor Knox OPC, Silver Spring, Maryland for three years before returning to Philadelphia to serve as librarian at Westminster Seminary from 1939–1945. He served as managing editor of the Presbyterian Guardian 1945–1958, comptroller of Westminster Seminary 1952–1965, Dean of Students and Registrar 1964–1969, and as an instructor in Greek and lecturer in New Testament 1962–1982.

In commending Sloat to the board of Trustees at Westminster, Edmund Clowney said of his friend, “His gifts and training qualify him particularly in the teaching of NT Greek and exegesis. He is a lifelong student of the Greek NT and an expositor of great balance and care. His service to the seminary in teaching and in administrative work has revealed his devotion to the cause from which the seminary stands.”

Leslie Sloat died and entered the presence of the Lord on June 14, 1988.

Picture: Leslie, Dorothy and Francis Sloat in 1948.